Export of livestock animals are prohibited in Bangladesh, according to a law promulgated immediately after our independence by a President Order no. 23, titled 'Bangladesh Wildlife (Protection) Act 1973' and thereafter an amendment in 1974 amending name of 'Wildlife Animal' into 'Live Animal'.
Forty-three years have passed since independence. Once the population of 75 million now exceeds 160 million. Per capita income was US$ 75.00 and now it has exceeded $1,000 figure. In terms of balance of payment, once called 'bottomless basket', the country's present foreign exchange reserve has exceeded the $30 billion dollar mark. In short, we have achievement almost in every sector of our economy. But what's about livestock sub-sector? Nothing has so far been achieved.
In the preamble of the National Livestock Development Policy of 2007, it was stated that the sub-sector's contribution to the country's GDP was 3 per cent which has 16.19 per cent share of the total agriculture sector. And now after 7 years, there was no impact of this policy in this sub-sector.
A recent survey, conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), stated that this sector contributes 2.5 per cent to the country's GDP. Contribution to GDP fell by 0.5 per cent in last 7 years. The BIDS's study, titled 'Barriers to the Development of Livestock sub-sector in Bangladesh' projected that the demand for meat would hit 4.72 million tons by 2015 whereas the supply of meat is likely to stand at 1.41 million tons, according to a report.
Is it really so? It is universally true that when any commodity's demand is high and supply is less, then that commodity's price goes up. We are experiencing this frequently in case of onion. When India put restriction on its onion export, our market price shoots up more than 100 per cent overnight. Frankly speaking, when further crisis in supply of an item is forecast, then without notice, the market price goes up.
Now let's talk about beef meat. We never experience any crisis of beef meat in the market - not in the past nor presently. We believe in future price also it will remain the same. So the question is why? Why after so many studies and so many projections we don't see any effect in the price of beef meat? The answer is 'reality'. Reality is totally different than studies or projections made by the experts who use calculators in office rooms. Demand gap or crisis is in the paper only, not in reality.
The reality is, of our total population, 80 per cent consists of poor, lower middle class and middle class people who consume beef meat occasionally, only not once a week, maybe not even once a month also. We only eat meat during any celebration, marriage or any party. We only consume meat, jointly chicken and beef but priority always chicken roast. The remaining 20 per cent people are upper middle class and rich who eat beef regularly. Among this group, some are health conscious eating beef cautiously. So the requirement is limited. Formula of 120 gm per head meat consumption for the total population does not apply here. This is the reason why crisis or demand gap of beef meat does not work here like other essential commodities.
Now what's the price of beef meat in Bangladesh? It is surprisingly very low among the world beef market. Lowest price outside Bangladesh is US$ 7.00 per kg which is equivalent to Taka 550.00 and the highest price is recorded up to US$35.00 per kg which is equivalent to Taka 2,730.00 per kg. In Dhaka super market, retail price of beef meat of premium quality is Tk. 265.00 per kg which is equivalent to US$ 3.40 only. This price in last 10 years had no major change. If really crisis or demand gap exists in the market, then the price of beef meat ought to have been higher in retail consumer market.
The BIDS study explicitly stated that feeding the country's growing population with adequate protein diet still remains a difficult task as the gap between demand and supply of livestock products, particularly meat, milk and eggs will widen extensively. There will be a deficit of 3.31 million tonnes of meat in 2015. We believe this deficit or demand gap is in paper only, not in real life.
EXPORT POTENTIAL: Our aim of discussion is export possibility or potentiality of live cattle (bull) which was before and now also prohibited. It is an open secret that whenever any crisis or demand persists in the market, then our friendly neighbouring country's border trade immediately fills the gap. So we never saw any crisis in local market crisis. Knowing this situation, the government smartly keeps beef meat export open and a few meat processing plants have started exporting beef meat to Malaysia and some Middle East countries. This policy has facilitated setting up of a few meat processing plants in the country by private entrepreneurs and created some job opportunities in this agricultural sub-sector.
NATIONAL LIVESTOCK POLICY 2007: Now let's come to the point of live cattle (bull) export. The national livestock development policy 2007 correctly identified real problems and bottlenecks in this sector and suggested/recommended the actions to be taken to arrest the problem. Main objectives of this policy are in brief:
a) Attaining self-sufficiency in production of meat, milk and eggs within a minimum possible time to increase the supply of high protein food;
b) For efficient village transportation and agricultural cultivation, developing high quality variety of livestock species, increasing supply of quality animal feed and introducing good quality animal husbandry and livestock medical treatment system;
c) Decreasing import dependency of milk and milk products in the quickest possible time and making arrangement of export of livestock and other animal products;
d) Motivating landless, small farmers, unemployed youth and distressed women in rearing up livestock animals, poultry and duck farming to create opportunity of additional income and additional employment;
e) Providing incentive and assistance in the private sector for establishment of export-oriented livestock, poultry and duck farming industry;
f) Developing beef breeds for increased productivity at farm level;
g) Developing backward and forward linkage system to help improvement of existing cattle fattening system into private enterprises;
h) Encouraging the private to establish mechanized slaughter houses with 'Static Flying Frame' around big cities and the Local Government would be encouraged to establish slaughter slabs in municipality and upazila headquarters;
i) Implementing successful pro-poor models for community-based smallholder dairy development including appropriate contact farming schemes; and
j) Promoting and encouraging the private sector to set up compliant veterinary diagnostic centres, clinics and hospitals to cater to the needs of the farmers and other beneficiaries;
The above mentioned are the only few vital policy measures among the list of actions suggested to be taken in the policy concerning beef meat, milk, poultry, duckers, animal and poultry feed, fodder system, veterinary and animal health diagnosis etc.
LIVESTOCK EXPORT: The policy 'provides incentive and assistance in private sector for establishment of export-oriented livestock, poultry and duck farming industry'. It means our government's policy also encourages export- oriented livestock farming.
Our country presently has some small-scale cattle or beef fattening farms scattered everywhere, especially in northern districts. The government also provided some incentives like priority bank loan and advisory services by the government's Livestock Department in the last 4th five-year plan. But after giving such incentives, this sub-sector did not grow or flourish as expected. The reason is market. Inside the country, we have a limited market. The cattle farmers put in all their efforts to rear their animals, keeping in mind the market for the rituals of Eid-ul Azha festival which comes once a year. According to skin/hide traders' estimate, last year 7 million animals were sacrificed during the Eid-ul Azha out of which 5 million were cattle only. The price of these cattle was mostly static - at some places even lower than last year.
SIZE OF OUR CATTLE: The normal sizes of local species of cattle are lower than the international standard. Highest sizes in our local species of cattle are 250 kg in weight. Only cross-bred cattle found in these fattening farms exceeds this weight. The government can put certain conditions for export-oriented cattle farms that exportable quality bull should not be less than 300 kg in weight or 300kg and above weighted cattle only will be allowed to be exported. A registered cattle farm only shall be allowed to export. At the same time, financial institutions also need to be involved in export financing.
POSSIBLE EXPORT MARKET: Livestock producing countries in the world are Australia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, New Zealand and India. Almost all other countries are consumers of beef meat. Now China has become the biggest consumer of beef meat in the world. In Asia, next to China is Indonesia. We can easily make our cattle export target first to China and then Indonesia and other ASEAN countries.
CHINA'S RED MEAT MARKET: A report titled 'China's Red Meat Intentions Heading Towards 2020', published in recent issues of 'Meat & Livestock Australia' says that on the back of growing demand for red meat, the Chinese government recently released the National Beef and Sheep Meat Production and Development Plan, with an aim to balance supply and demand situation and improve self-sufficiency rates for red meat by 2020. The report indicates that the Chinese government will invest RMB1.7 billion in this project over the next eight years. According to the report, China's beef consumption in 2000 was 5.13 million tons, which rose to 6.53 million tons in 2010. The volume is expected to grow by a further 10 per cent, to 7.21 million tons, by 2015, with the volume forecast to increase further to 7.96 million tons in 2020. With higher total beef consumption, per capita beef consumption also rose steadily over the past decade, from 4.04kg to in 2000, to 4.87kg in 2010. The report suggests the level of per capita consumption to increase to 5.19kg in 1015 and 5.49kg in 2020.
The following table shows the position of Chinese red meat consumption:
Unit: million tons;kg
EXPORT STRATEGY: Regarding the export strategy, we can mention an example of cement industry in Bangladesh. In 70s and 80s, there were two cement factories in Bangladesh, owned by the government under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), namely Chattak Cement Factory in Sylhet and Clinker Grinding Factory in Chittagong producing jointly around 400,000 metric tons against the country's annual demand or requirement of 1 million tons. At that time, a few private entrepreneurs tried to set up cement factories to fill the gap of total demand. They tried for decades but our governments did not allow establishment of cement factories in private sector. Later on, in 90s and thereafter the government politically decided and allowed the private sector to set up cement factories with the result that now Bangladesh has become one of the prominent cement exporting countries, producing 25 million tons by 125 factories against the local requirement of 16 million tons keeping 9 million tons extra for export market. According to the Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association, there are more than 125 cement factories in the country. They can meet the local demand and cater to overseas markets. Like cement industries, the livestock sub-sector also needs attention for development and export potentiality in the world market as well.
IMPACTS OF EXPORT: The time has come now to think about the livestock sub-sector and take a political decision about it. The decision of allowing export of live cattle (bull) will bring following impact on this sub-sector:
a) There will be a competition for setting up export-oriented cattle farms in the country by private entrepreneurs;
b) With new cattle farms set up in rural areas, there will be new job opportunities for half-educated and illiterate village youth and at the same time will increase economic activities which will end up by its remarkable contribution to the country's GDP growth;
c) It will reduce migration tendency of unemployed youth to city areas for searching temporary employment; and
d) Even after export of a few thousand live cattle every month, there will not be any impact in the internal cattle market as the export quality cattle are different and made for export market only.
Finally, we like to mention here an abstract on this sub-sector from our government's "Outline of Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 - Making Vision 2021 a Reality" which mentioned about technical constraints and opportunities for increasing livestock production. "Production of livestock can be increased if nutritional constraints, parasitic constraints and infectious disease such as foot and mouth disease are controlled effectively'. Carcass yields in Bangladesh are 70-100, 7-8 and 7-8 kg for cattle, goat and sheep respectively. This is very low for good financial return.
"The nine most critical areas for livestock development in the country are: i) dairy development and meat production, ii) poultry development, iii) veterinary services and animal health, iv) feeds and animal management, v) breed development, vi) hides and skins, vii) marketing of livestock products, Viii) international trade management; and ix) institutional development for research and extension. The most important agricultural stakeholders are the kishan-kishanis, who must be reached effectively by agricultural research and extension services."
The above position is a plain truth and must be taken care of effectively by the government.
The writer is an ex-journalist.
Email: obaidurr2@yahoo.com
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